A/N - Sorry about the wait, I was away at a convention all last weekend and I didn't get any writing done.

Thanks for the reviews and the support, it means a ton to me to know that you're all enjoying story.

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Chapter 28: Tell me more?

Hiccup was beyond glad to return to the apartment. Their apartment. He used his key to unlock the door and pushed it in with his knee. Toothless gave a desperate meow as Hiccup set the carrier on the floor. It seemed, that Hiccup wasn't the only one to be glad they weren't on Berk anymore. Toothless was pawing at the carrier's lock. Hiccup pushed it up and open, and the black cat eagerly limped across the kitchen and into the living room, where he leapt to his favorite perch at the window.

Astrid kicked the door closed behind her with a heavy sigh. She lugged her suitcase and set it beside Hiccup's.

"Why was the flight back so much worse than the first one?" Astrid complained as she pulled open the fridge. "Oh, that needs to go." She tossed what looked like leftovers into the trash.

"Uh, Astrid?" Hiccup twisted his hands together.

"Hm?" Astrid hummed as she dug through the cabinets. She paused when no answer came and glanced over her shoulder at him. "What is it?"

Hiccup tried to speak, but his words caught in his throat.

"Hiccup?"

"I-I, uh…thanks for going with me."

She turned to look at him. "Are you okay?"

He shrugged. "It's just, I was dreading it. With you being there, it wasn't that bad. I, uh, I like having you around. It makes things better."

She smiled, took a step toward him, and hooked her hands onto his arms. "I'm glad you feel that way. Because I feel the same about you."

She was still smiling when she pressed her lips against his. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. He never thought that he'd actually feel this way. Like…magic, like free floating light, it was…indescribable.

"Are you hungry?" Astrid asked in his ear.

"I'm starved."

"Chinese?"

"Sounds great."

X

The rest of the holidays flew by and soon the campus was rearing up for the start of another semester, despite the furious snow storm that pelted the region. A fresh few inches had fallen during the night, giving the snowplows overtime and a half. Hiccup was in the warm comfort of the indoors, looking down at his course schedule. It was odd how a simple piece of paper could be so intimidating.

"You'll be fine, babe." Astrid was saying as she made the morning coffee.

She was still in her pajamas, just a t-shirt and her underwear. It was hard not to stare at her long legs, the curve of her butt, the hem of lacey panties that vanished underneath the wrinkled shirt.

He didn't look away in time. She caught him staring.

"What?" She laughed.

"N-nothing."

"Mm-hm."

Hiccup was looking down at this schedule when it was pulled from his grasp. Blinking, he looked up just as Astrid joined him on the couch, straddling his hips. She pressed her lips to his and he wasted no time in sliding his hands up her back, beneath the shirt, urging it upward.

She was pulling her shirt over her head when he spoke, "Were you nervous when you started school?"

"Yeah, more or less."

He lined her collarbone with quick kisses, roaming her warm skin with his eager hands.

"College is a lot more relaxed than high school, all the fun of school without the drag of the drop-outs, you know? There's not time to make fun of people or goof off in class. The people here are paying to be here, so they're taking it seriously." Astrid ran her hands through his hair. "It's not, oh…"

He fastened his teeth onto her breast, gently biting, using his tongue as a buffer. He wasn't sure what he was doing, but by the moans that interrupted her, it was good.

"Do that again," Astrid pleaded, breathlessly.

He repeated to the best of his knowledge. Similar moans escaped her throat, her fists tightened in his hair, her legs squeezed his waist. He leg go, and she swiftly adjusted, pushing him down to the couch and pulling at the button of his pants. He reached down to assist, and at the freeing, she pushed his shirt up his stomach, dragging her nails along his skin.

There was an eagerness that he hadn't experienced before. Her touched was desperate, forceful, needy. She pushed his shirt over his head and it fell to the floor with a plop. He wasn't complaining, forceful Astrid was an incredible turn-on. It lit a fire in his gut that stirred and bubbled and spilled into the rest of him. His fingertips were pushing underneath her underwear when she stood up and yanked his pants off of his legs, pulling his boxes along. Her nails scrapped the side of his thighs, but he didn't mind.

She was on him, teeth, skin, and nails, kisses needy and hard. He kissed her back, hand roughly in her hair, the other firmly attached to her smooth waist. Her knee scooted along his thigh, but something happened. Somehow, the couch was not where it had been, and they went rolling with an unceremoniously thump to the floor.

Hiccup landed hard on his shoulder and the air was knocked out of him. He straightened his arm out with a grunt. Astrid collided with the coffee table, moaning as she sat up, giving it the evil eye. Toothless meowed indignantly, almost a cat-laugh.

"You okay?" Hiccup asked. "What a mood killer."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Astrid pushed the coffee table aside.

Hiccup barely had time to readjust himself before she was on top of him, pushing him back to the floor. Her kisses were insistent, but not as needy as before. The raw passion had been replaced with simple passion. Hiccup fought for the dominate role, and Astrid eventually gave in.

Her nails dug into his back. Her hair splayed out around her head like a halo, bathed in the snowy light from outside. She gasped with each thrust, tightening her grip on his shoulder blades. Sweat glistened along her forehead, and he could feel it along his back an chest. She screamed at the exulting finish, and he came not long after, and fell into her arms.

In was in her arms he would stay until he was forced to leave.

"Are you cold?" Astrid asked after a while.

"A little," Hiccup said. Admittedly, the room had gotten a bit chilly. The sweat prickled along his skin. "But you're warm."

"We can be warm under a blanket, too, or in the shower." Astrid sat up, forcing Hiccup up with her. He remained as entangled as he could be with her.

"Yeah, I guess," Hiccup sighed. He hadn't showered since he'd gotten back, and neither had she. They were both due.

They clamored into the shower and waited for the steam to heat up the room, which took longer, it seemed. Their sexual thirst quenched, the shower was a flurry of soap suds and butterfly kisses. Hiccup relished each one. As he rinsed the soap from his hair, he became aware of a distant pounding in his head. He pulled his head from the water and realized that it was not in his head at all, but outside the bathroom. Someone was at the front door.

"Who's that?"

"I don't know," Astrid mumbled, rubbing the girl-smelling conditioner in her hair. "They'll leave eventually."

They did not leave eventually. Wrapped in a towel, Hiccup watched as Astrid begrudgingly dressed quickly to answer to refusing guest.

She threw the door open, "What? Oh, it's you. Hiccup, this is the landlord."

Standing in the doorway was a harried-looking woman of maybe sixty. A white scarf wrapped her neck and she looked as though someone had just run over her toes.

"Hi," Hiccup waved awkwardly, very much aware that he was wearing only a towel. Blush surged into his cheeks.

The woman gave a rough cough of a chuckle. "Don't be embarrassed, I've had five husbands and raised three sons. I know what it looks like."

His blush deepened.

"Do you need something?" Astrid asked. There was a commotion in the hallway. A few people were filing down the hall, armed with backpacks and suitcases.

"The boiler's buster. I've got some discounted motel rooms until it's fixed."

"Which motel?"

"The Riverside View Motel,"

Hiccup started to say something, but Astrid cut him off.

"No thanks, we're good here."

The landlord raised a brow, shook her head, and said, "Fine, suit yourself. But I told you, so you can't sue if you freeze to death."

Astrid shut the door.

"The boiler's broken?"

"It happens. It was out for like an hour last year. Honestly, you'd think they'd just upgrade and get a new heating system." Astrid huffed as she went to the stove. The coffee was long done. "Besides, the heat goes out, but the electricity stays on. We'll be fine."

Hiccup blinked at her. "But, I saw the forecast. It's supposed to get down to like ten below tonight."

"I've got a space heater. We can put it in the bedroom and shut the door. We'll be fine. Besides, the Riverside View is in the ghetto. Someone gets rapped or shot there like every other week. Unless you've got a serious craving for crack, we're staying here."

"Okay," Hiccup nodded. He could feel the outside chill slinking in.

X

Astrid pulled a square space heater out of the closet and set it up in the bedroom. In a few minutes, the chill was lessened. The same couldn't be said for the rest of the apartment, which had sunk to a dismal winter chill. Snow caked on the windows and blotted out of the fading daylight. By the time the sun was gone, the temperate was in the negative.

Hiccup lounged in the bed and pulled the blanket over his legs. Astrid had pulled an extra couple of blankets out, and in the bedroom just his hoodie was passable. Astrid turned off the overhead light and tiptoed to the bed. The space heater's tiny orange light gave off a ghastly glow as her shadow passed in front of it. At the bedside, she pulled her jacket off and tossed it to the floor. She nestled up beside him.

"Night, babe," Astrid said into the pillow.

"Night," Hiccup said. He swallowed. The hum of the heater and the warmth were both soothing, but the dark outline of the wardrobe mocked him. He gripped her shoulder.

"Hiccup?"

"I need to tell you something."

Astrid shifted, turning toward him most likely, because when she spoke her voice was clearer. "What is it?"

He swallowed hard. "When we were in Berk, some things happened."

"What?" Astrid asked, the concern overpowering the sleeplessness.

"It's…a number of things, really." Hiccup looked away from her, even though he couldn't see her. "My dad sent me to the hardware store, you know? And while I was in there, Finn said something to me, I didn't think much about it, because it was weird."

"What was it?" Her voice was low.

"That I shouldn't let mean girls take advantage of me, or something." Hiccup paused, but Astrid remained silent. His chest was thumping madly. "B-but after that, my dad confronted me. He asked me what I knew about you, and then he starting spouting all this stuff about things that Finn had told him, about you, and I-I pushed him away, I didn't know what to do, but I started thinking and I-I just…"

"Hiccup," Astrid said so quietly that he almost didn't hear her. There was a quaver in her voice that scared him.

"No, I mean, I didn't believe anything he'd said, but it's just…I was thinking, and," Hiccup was saying when he felt a shaking hand on his arm.

"Hiccup, if I-I tell you something, will you promise not to hate me?"

There was a hitch in his throat. "I couldn't hate you. Why? What happened?"

Astrid's hand squeezed his arm. The dark that gave him a boost of confidence seemed to drain hers.

"Astrid, you can tell me anything. I promise, there's no way I could hate you." He put his hand over hers.

"I've made mistakes, a lot of them." Astrid started, her voice quiet, sullen, and a bit afraid. "I never listened to my parents. I-I stayed out too late, hung out with the wrong crowd, got arrested, plays with drugs, drank, slept around…" She swallowed. "My record is a mess. Property damaged, vandalism, loitering, trespassing, normal teenage stuff, right?"

"I guess so." Hiccup bit his lip. So far, the worst thing she had said had been that she'd slept around, which he already knew. Why had it stung? "That doesn't sound that bad. The way they talked, it sounded so…bad."

"I know," Astrid said, almost a whisper. "But, I did get kicked out of three prep schools, almost four, but I graduated just in time. No time to process the forms, you know?" She laughed, but it was hallow. "But then, after my parents died, I had to grow up. I refused to come crying to some relative I barely knew on the other side of the country. I refused to fall and give in. So…I started working at this ritzy club, owned by a good friend of my dad's."

"Alvin?"

"Yeah, he owns a whole string, including the Rachel's chain. He really helped me out. If it hadn't been for him I would have been on the streets, or dead, or something worse. But he gave me a job and I was able to support myself. I got a scholarship here and I took it."

Hiccup swallowed, "What kind of a job?"

He heard the hitch in her voice. "Did they tell you that, too?"

"Kind of, it could have been a derogatory jab, though."

"I was a stripper." Her tone was flat. "I well paid, stripper, I add."

"You should be. I've seen you in your underwear." Hiccup tried to be humorous, but it fell flat on his ears. "I mean, I could see how you could make enough money to pay the bills."

Astrid's laugh was low and hollow.

It pinged at his chest, a needle poking at his heart, but never quite penetrating the surface. "Astrid, how are you paying the bills now?"

The silence that followed stuck into his heart, the needle going all the way through, and expanding.

"Astrid?"

"Rachel's is first and foremost a restaurant," Astrid said promptly, like a rehearsed line. A small gasp escaped her throat. "But yes, I occasionally add to my wages … by stripping."

"I thought you were a waitress?"

"Yeah, but introducing yourself as a stripping waitress isn't exactly a friend-maker. If I would have told you that I was a stripper when we first met, would you have still liked me?"

Hiccup hesitated. He'd like to sat that he would have, but he wasn't sure.

"See?" Astrid said in his hesitation. He didn't miss the depression in her tone.

"Is that how you paid for that car?"

"Yeah." Her answer came after a pause. "But, it's not like I want to do this forever. But, I make too good of money for the hours I put in, I couldn't find that kind of money anywhere else. When I'm done with school I want a real job, a legit job, one that I'm not ashamed of."

Hiccup felt her body shake, he heard the sob that pushed up her throat. He reached out to her as it began to spill forth.

"I wasn't a good person, I know that. I made bad choices. But I got over them, I'm not that person anymore. I moved halfway across the country to get away from that person, and leave all the negative shit behind. I was a drunk, sleazy whore and I couldn't do anything else. No one would let me be anything else."

Her words were nearing unintelligibility. Sobs shook her entire frame. Hiccup reached out to her and pulled her into his arms. Her tears soaked into his shoulder. Her fists captured the back of his shirt.

"You're not any of that, Astrid." Hiccup kissed the top of her head. "You're beautiful, brave, fearless, amazing, and thoughtful." If not outspoken, reckless, and a bit insane. But he kept those to himself.

Her fists clenched his shirt tighter. She mumbled against him, "I love you."

Hiccup kissed her temple. He loved her, he was pretty sure, but right now something else was pinging inside of him. Doubt?

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